City Notebook: Trump 2.0 brings numerous questions for Canada, and for Alberta

By Collin Gallant on November 9, 2024.

Eight years after politics as usual were flipped on its ear by a Donald Trump presidency, here we are again.

We can only hope Ottawa has learned a thing or two, and Edmonton as well, for that matter.

Of course, much is being made about the effect of the U.S. presidential campaign results on the Canadian political scene.

Many conservatives are likely happy say, “Let ‘er rip.”

Centrists and progressives, not so much, to put it lightly.

But, at the ground level, already rippling with economic uncertainty, things may get shakier still.

Trump 1.0 featured a rip-up and rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and it’s likely 2.0 will, too.

What of NATO, which seems ready to make investments or at least better use of CFB Suffield?

Is Country of Origin Labelling for beef back in play?

How about the Keystone pipeline?

What about those tariffs promised on all goods entering the U.S.?

For Canada, a nation that sends upwards of 80 per cent of its trade southward, and a lot of that in the form of oil, it’s a real question for the Alberta treasury.

Halloween apples

Last week this column lamented the lack of pranks on Oct. 31, but it turns out Alberta is near the top of the country in terms of property damage and vandalism related to Halloween.

Also, it’s a Western phenomenon.

A study by Preszler Law, says the province is No. 3, with about 5,075 incidents per 100,000 people. Saskatchewan (6,731) was No. 1, while Quebec (1,740) was No. 10.

New constituencies

Under the radar in a flurry of provincial press releases is that a panel will soon convene to discuss redrawing election boundaries in the province to balance population levels.

Two seats will be added but it might be a delicate task to argue rural representation needs protection when major cities are booming beyond belief. Though, it’s a safe bet that’s what the United Conservatives will argue.

That urban v. rural issue figured prominently when the lines were last redrawn in 2017.

That began with a proposal to reduce rural ridings but make Medicine Hat the centre a three-riding scheme, including a strictly urban riding, then north and south ridings in long bands across the southeast.

It would have meant three different MLAs would have represented residents in Redcliff, the Hat and Dunmore, but at the same time sending three MLAs to work in Edmonton on behalf of the region.

Alas, it was scrubbed in the final proposal after a handful of local submissions pulled for two more evenly split urban-rural constituencies that are now Brooks-Medicine Hat and Cypress-Medicine Hat.

A look ahead

The last of four preliminary budget meetings takes place Wednesday with council members set to hear the business plans for the city’s land and economic development departments.

100 years ago

The date of the Thanksgiving holiday, set annually by an act of Parliament, would coincide with the Armistice remembrance, the News detailed on Nov. 8, 1924.

“What a hopeless contradiction appears at first sight of the ‘holy silence of remembrance’ of Armistice Day and the jubilant noisiness of Thanksgiving,” wrote Herbert Brown, minster at Holy Trinity Church, in a front page message.

“But celebrations should become more helpful by reason of the shadow of Armistice Day … and good to realize our delights of thanksgiving-tide have been made possible for us by sacrifice of our forebearers and gallant men.”

A meeting of the Ministerial Association of Medicine Hat determined that special church services observing the anniversary of the Armistice would be held on Sunday, Nov. 9, while business owners were encouraged to allow a moment’s silence at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.

Mayor Walter Huckvale was elected president of the Alberta Municipalities Union for 1925.

A solitary farmer in Elkpoint, Alta. set fire to his house and barn to alert neighbours as a cry for help after breaking his legs in a barnyard accident.

Alberta Hockey Association promoted a plan to set regions for a potential ladies hockey provincial championship playoff scheme. Medicine Hat, Taber, Lethbridge, Coleman and potentially Fernie, would be in the south.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com.